I have a love-hate relationship with sleep. I love sleeping, but I hate going to sleep. If I had a dollar for every time I woke up thinking, ‘I wish I’d gone to bed at nine’, I wouldn’t need to write this. I’d probably be on a superyacht bigger than Jay Z’s, drinking truffle oil and getting daily facials, and paying Oxfam’s bills. In other words, I say it a lot.

I’ve always been inclined to stay up late, even seeing a sleep specialist a few years ago for insomnia. Having two small dictators – err, children – who wake up at stupid o’clock hasn’t made me any more disciplined when it comes to my own bed time. My husband does help, to be fair - he’s an early bird with the self-discipline of a Buddhist monk. I’ve dubbed him the ‘sleep coach’. If he’s out or travelling, I’m screwed. I’ll watch TV, read a book, scroll Facebook, take approximately 12,389 minutes to brush my teeth… I’ll do anything but go to sleep. Because: ‘me time’. I crave and anticipate that measly one-to-two hours at night when I’m not working, corralling kids, folding laundry or talking to anyone.

Sleep Deprivation Is More Harmful Than You Think3:19

Researchers are gaining interesting new insights into just how destructive sleep deprivation can be for our emotional equilibrium. Skimping even an hour or two on sleep, for example, makes people less able to read others' facial expressions. WSJ's Andrea Petersen explains on Lunch Break. Photo: Getty

Then I want to stick a fork in my eye when I’m woken by the human alarm clocks six hours later. If you can’t beat them, join them, so I challenge myself to go to sleep early every night, for a week. Just to make things really interesting, I do it while Sleep Coach is overseas (because I am a sadist). And I discover that my propensity to stay up late is, in fact, not my fault.

Why you need more sleep

Sleep keeps your weight in check. Swedish researchers found that a lack of ZZZs interferes with the hormones that make you feel full, while boosting the hormone that promotes hunger (eg ghrelin).

Sleep boosts immunity: in a study on identical twins, published in the journal Sleep, the twin with poorer sleep experienced poorer immune function. Sleep makes you empathetic: participants found it hard to identify facial expressions of happiness or sadness when they were sleep deprived versus well-rested, in a study by the University of Arizona.

Sleep is the new kale

Sleep is big business. According to a recent report, the sleep aids market in North America alone will be worth $59 billion in 2020. In the pipeline: an app-controlled mattress protector that keeps your bed at the optimal temperature; wall speakers that act as a noise-cancelling ‘sound blanket’; and the Pegasi sleep glasses, which send a specific wavelength of light to your eyes, resetting your sleep cycle (already on the market).

Sleep Number 360 smart bed - CES experience2:47

Instead of counting kilojoules, we’re counting REM stages. One gym in the UK recently launched Napercise, a 45-minute guided napping class (‘cos, who wants to go to the gym to work out?). Our ancestors were woken by the sun, now we have an app for that. Wearable fitness trackers such as Fitbit’s new Alta HR monitor your heart rate to map sleep patterns and advise on how you could improve your snooze. The pressure to sleep well is almost enough to keep you awake at night.

In my quest to sleep like a boss (although, I hear actual bosses don’t sleep much) I spoke to Dr Carmel Harrington, author, researcher and general doyen of doze. She said I’m prone to late nights thanks to my chronotype – a genetic characteristic that determines your “peaks of alertness” – not because I watch Stranger Things. I am an ‘owl’, she explains. “You tend to like the nightlife, you don’t like the mornings, and are slower to get going in the morning.” Nail on the head! “‘Larks’, on the other hand, like the sunrise and naturally get tired at about 9pm. They’re happy to go to sleep.”

Regardless of your chronotype, we all have peaks of and dips in alertness in every 24-hour cycle. An owl’s alertness peaks at around 10am and 10pm. “It’s very hard to fall asleep on an increasing tide of alertness. If you’re peaking at 10pm, you’ll find it very difficult to go to sleep,” says Dr Harrington.

It runs in families, she reiterates, which explains why my mum has the same problem – as well as my two-year-old daughter, whose naps we manage with the military precision of a CIA operation, or she’ll stay up well past her bedtime.

Luckily, you don’t need to invest all your hard-earned shekels into gadgets and gizmos to sleep well. Even owls can reboot their sleep cycle with a few tweaks.

My girls might be able to fall asleep easily but not me. Photo: Supplied

The experiment begins

Getting a good night’s sleep starts in the morning, Dr Harrington says. The key is bright light. When your eye detects light, such as sunlight, it signals to the brain to stop producing melatonin, the hormone that makes us sleepy. This resets your circadian rhythm (the internal clock that tells you when to sleep and when to be alert) for the next 24 hours. “If you switch off melatonin production at 6am, you should feel sleepy about 16 hours later (9pm),” says Dr Harrington.

But ‘Bright light’ doesn’t have to be sunlight. Turns out backlit devices can work in your favour: Dr Harrington agrees that if checking your Insta feed can keep you up at night, turning on your phone first thing in the AM can turn off melatonin production.

So on day one, Sunday, I shepherd the kids into the brightest room, the kitchen, and let the magic happen.

That night, I expect the slumber to wash over me at precisely 9pm. But 60 Minutes is exposing Cassie Sainsbury as a liar and a prostitute and, like a car crash scene, I can’t look away. I eventually hit the sack at 10.30pm, which is an improvement on the previous night (11pm).

The next day, I get a pep talk from Dr Libby Weaver, author of The Energy Guide, whose most recent speaking tour focused on sleep. “When we say, we don’t have time for something – like sleep – we’re actually saying, that’s not a priority for me right now,” she says, and applauds me for making sleep a ‘priority’. (I still feel an innate urge to make Netflix a priority.) “Lousy energy due to sleep deprivation affects the food we choose, whether we get off the couch to exercise, the jobs we apply for, the friends we make, the way we speak to our loved ones.”

We know we’re not supposed to look at devices before bed, but we all do it, I argue. Is there some life hack around this? Is putting the phone down for five minutes before ‘lights out’ enough? “You need an hour of no screens,” says Dr Weaver. “But TV, at a distance, is not as bad as the backlit devices right in front of your face.” Phew!

I definitely felt like a better person, a better mother, when I had more sleep. Photo: Supplied

I can’t get no sleep

It’s Tuesday and I’m reeling from a less-than-textbook night with the kids. I vow to go to bed early that night, but start reading Big Little Lies and stay up till 10.10pm. I fall asleep hoping the Universe will throw me a bone; instead it serves up thunder so loud it shakes the house – at 5am. FFS.

The next day, Wednesday, I run around like a Wiggle, ticking off to-do lists and churning through chores. It’s only life admin, but adrenaline courses through my veins like Armageddon is coming and I haven’t stockpiled enough tinned beans. This is not conducive to sleep, says Dr Weaver. “Historically, we only ever made adrenaline when our life was in danger. Now, we make it very day. We have this perception that we have to keep doing things, but adrenaline doesn’t want you to sleep.” The antidote? “Slow, diaphragmatic breathing communicates to your body that you’re safe and lowers stress hormone production – while activating the parasympathetic nervous system,” explains Dr Weaver. “Extending your ‘out’ breath makes a big difference, even if for just 20 breaths.” She also recommends I lie on the bed, legs up the wall, with arms outstretched, for five minutes before getting under the covers. “It sounds crazy, but it’s incredibly calming.”

Dr Weaver also advises to fill up on magnesium – essential for the nervous system and muscles to relax. You can get your dose from leafy green veggies, nuts and seeds.

For the rest of the week, I try to override my owl-like habits. I have dinner with the kids at 5.30pm (Dr Harrington advises no big meals within three hours of bedtime). In the evening, to promote melatonin, I keep the lights lower than that of an RnB video from the 90s. I switch off devices at least 10 minutes before bed and read a book, breathe like a Tantric guru, and fall asleep instantly.

The morning after the nights I do clock eight hours’ sleep, I savour that feeling. I’m patient, energised, a better mother. I never succeed in going to bed at 9pm – it’s not me, it’s my genes! – but I dial-back my bedtimes (9.35pm is my PB). When it comes to sleep, I’ll always be a work in progress.